CNN (12/2, Rogers) reports, “High school students in states that require universal background checks on all prospective gun buyers are less likely to carry guns compared to students in states that require background checks only on sales through federally licensed firearms dealers,” research indicated. The study revealed that “on average, 5.8% of nearly 180,000 students who responded to the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey reported carrying a gun during the study period.” The findings were published online in Pediatrics.

HealthDay (12/2, Reinberg) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “Youth in states requiring universal background checks are less likely to carry guns to school, study says, “Kristen Rogers, CNN, December 2, 2019

Healio (11/27, Gramigna) reported, “Physicians who screen positive for depressive symptoms have an increased risk for medical errors,” investigators concluded in an 11-study, 21,517-physician “systematic review and meta-analysis published” online Nov. 27 in JAMA Network Open.

Providing similar coverage were MedPage Today (11/27, Hlavinka) and Medscape (11/27, Anderson, Subscription Publication).

Related Links:

— “Physicians with depression more likely to self-report medical errors, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, November 27, 2019

Newsweek (12/2, Gander) reports “suicide attempts linked to some non-opioid medications replacing [opioid prescriptions] have risen,” in the face of falling opioid prescriptions, research indicates. In a study examining gabapentin and baclofen, “over the period the drugs were studied, suicides attempts after people took just gabapentin rose by 80.5 percent, and by 43 percent for baclofen.” The study was published in Clinical Toxicology.

Related Links:

— “Drugs Used To Replace Opioids Linked With Increase In Suicide Attempts Across U.S., “Kashmira Gander, Newsweek, December 2, 2019

CNN (11/26, Kounang) reports, “From 2000 to 2017, the rate of exposures to natural psychoactive substances such as marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms increased by nearly 75% in the” US, researchers concluded after analyzing “67,369 calls to Poison Control Centers of people inhaling or ingesting natural psychoactive substances.” The findings were published online in the journal Clinical Toxicology.

Related Links:

— “Calls to Poison Control for psychoactive drug exposure on the rise, “Nadia Kounang, CNN, November 26, 2019

NBC News (11/26, Carroll) reports on its website a study suggests “binge drinking rates are on the rise for nearly all groups of Americans.” The research showed “from 2006 to 2018, the rate of binge drinking in women with children rose at about the same pace as women without children.” Another findings is that “binge drinking among men 18 to 29 who had children actually declined during the 12-year period, the only group to do so,” dropping below the rate of binge drinking reported in childless women in that age bracket. The findingswere published in PLOS Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Moms are binge drinking more, but so are all women, study finds, “Linda Carroll, NBC News, November 26, 2019